pay off debt

I paid off two medical bills this week. Yay! I have kept track of my finances on a spreadsheet for the last year and even with two major disasters that could ruin anyone I have still managed to cut my debt in half!!! Wahoo!

One debt is gone ! I paid $450 to a lender today, paid in full, the debt is gone! It was hard to do, to make myself drive there and hand over that much cash because I know I’ll be scraping by and suffering until I get paid again. I hope the feelings of relief will happen soon. I know never to borrow money from a lender ever again. And I think I may be able to pay more and more to other companies/people I owe debts too.

$450 dollars closer to being debt free :)

I also set up a small payment plan with America First Credit Union. Just the min of $25 dollars a month. I plan on paying more than that, but I am at least starting the payments rolling rather than paying nothing at all.

Sweeeet.

It would take me 7 years if I wanted to make min. payments $25 dollars a month for what I owe to America first. That’s insane ! There’s no way I’d do that.

The End.

I set up a payment plan on a personal loan that I owe to a credit union. I will start off with the min payments ( rather than just ignoring it ) and start putting small dents in the debt I owe. If I continue to make the min payments of $25 dollars a month it will take me 7 years to pay off that loan !!! I definately plan to pay more than just 25$ dollars eventually. But sheesh. Debt is rediculous. I can’t wait until it’s gone. But it takes time time time

I decided to divide my debt goal in two, this one referring to the money we owe Espenius’ parents (and thus not including our giant loans from Lånekassen and the bank). We did our third payment to them this week, and I’m sure I’ll be able to check this goal off the list before Xman. Yeah!

Hey ya’ll. I’ve been accumulating debt for a while being stressed and not sure how I will afford my debt and my bills. I really need to buckle down, create a budget, track my spending, and put a plan into action on how I will pay off my debt. First of all, I’m not even exactly sure who I owe. I’m not sure how much I owe either. I know I need to contact the medical, and school institutions seeing this is where most of the money is owed. I haven’t bothered pulling up my credit report either to see what’s on there. But I’m overestimating my total debt is around $10,000.

I just got a second job serving in a restaurant serving as a waitress. I’m planning on putting all of my tips toward my emergency fund which should be at least $1,000. That way, I have a place to fall on in case of emergency.

I have cut back on bills by selling my car. I have no gas, no insurance, and no car expenses. I ride my bike or take the bus everywhere I go. Eventually, I will need to save my money for a car.

One way to stick to my budget and to track my spending is to keep all of my receipts and allow myself an amount for each category. This way I have to stay within that amount without blowing cash just because it’s in my wallet.

That’s where I’m at right now, I will find out how much I owe and hopefully start finding ways to pay off the debt.

Yah, I depleted my stash again. I needed to
cover medical bills once more. It never ends.
I’m not giving up on this though!

Last year, I went to a fair where I met the managers of an organic farm where I spent a week in summer 2008.
In that occasion, I wanted to buy a panforte (a nougat-like spicy delicacy from Tuscany) that I ate during the holiday, but I didn’t have enough money with me.
So the managers gave me a panforte which I had to pay later with a postal order.
But I never did that postal order. :(
And I’m not proud of that.
So now I promise to eliminate this debt asap!!!

Today we got the tax bill. They had charged us $2.99 in interest and then reversed it. I had deliberately overpaid them 2c and they added 2c to the bill to clear it to zero. I think it’s cute.

The reason I overpaid was to make sure we didn’t have a zero balance. Sometimes when you have a zero balance an organization won’t send you a bill. It can be hard to tell then if we still owe interest but the bill got lost. I had my credit card bill go astray that way, and they got really shirty about it, so I like to throw some small change onto things just to keep getting the bills.

The reason they charged us the extra 2c is because they have a policy of neither charging nor refunding balances less than about five dollars. It’s not worth the processing to them.

This is good. The debt now stands at $5,387.83

But man, will we be able to pay it off before the EI runs out? I don’t think so, but it might be close…

I was feeling cranky about never having any money so a couple of days ago I deliberately went out and spent money on things I wanted!!!!!

I bought one package of six pairs of plain white underpants, and three big plastic laundry baskets. It all came to $23 after taxes.

Profligate, I know, but sometimes these little explosions are a big help to my morale.

Dd got her tuition contribution early this month so her rent check wouldn’t bounce. Dh got his EI report forgotten this week, so the grocery money isn’t coming in until later in the week.

Cue the circus music and a shot of Dondy juggling rainbow coloured balls which, when the shot zooms in turn into envelopes with various threatening rubber stamps on them, like “Past Due” and “Pay Immediately!”

Luckily I keep LOTS of food in the pantry and in the freezer. My reaction to an austerity is to buy food in bulk so when we run out of food we run out of milk, fresh fruit, fresh meat and fresh vegetables. And no matter what I keep the money for the milk. We have enough pasta to feed the family for two weeks, and enough rice to feed the family for two weeks and enough beans to feed the family for two weeks and enough flour to make bread to feed the family for a month. Don’t even ask me how many bags of frozen vegetables I have. Meanwhile downstairs we have four full boxes of laundry detergent and a month’s worth of cat food and cat sand…

Having had babies, my definition of running out means “down to only two remaining full packages”

Now if only I could figure out how to stockpile the treat food that makes the diet more interesting. Can’t seem to keep frozen cheesecake in the house no how.

I’ve read “Your Money or Your Life” twice & listened to the CDs too. Now, I’m ready to pay off debt. I have a car loan & student loans & a bit of credit card debt, but not much.

Step one is finding a post-graduation job. I’d like to be a teacher, but right now, I just need to work & have some moola. I’m interviewing & need to keep it up.

Step two is cutting spending. My weaknesses are clothes & eating out.

Step three is realizing what I already have & being grateful for it. This will make me feel happy instead of deprived about the cutting spending thing.

Step four is single-mindedly putting the majority of what I earn toward debt.

Once my debt is gone, I need to focus on savings & investments.

Life is meant to be lived, not spent slaving away to pay off money I’ve borrowed from evil credit card companies.